I joined University of Limerick in August 2007 to lead the development of the Department of Psychology. The attraction of this post was the University's commitment to the development of Psychology which matched my own loyalty to this discipline. Since graduating with first class honours in psychology from Queens University Belfast in 1993, I have been engaged in teaching and research in the area of applied social and developmental psychology. This commitment arises in part from a fascination with the subject matter of social psychology as well as a belief that theoretically grounded and methodologically sound psychological research can be a powerful and positive force for social change.

My research is very much informed by the social identity tradition as it allows the exploration of how group memberships - collective or social identities- are central to individual psychology and wider social and intergroup relations. My overarching research interests concern the impact of group memberships on social behaviours. I am interested in how perceiving one-self as a member of a religious, socio-economic or racial group can impact on views of the self and others, in how these group memberships are transmitted to and understood by children and young people and in how such memberships impact on physical and mental health. Issues of power and (dis)empowerment are of course central to our experiences of racial, national and gender groups, as some groups by their nature are more or less powerful than others. So my research often uses a political psychological approach to consider the manner in which social practices are recreated for the purposes of particular political projects.

Research Interests
The application of social psychology and the social identity approach in particular to understanding and solving real world social issues
Examination of the social and psychological impact of adversity (e.g. poverty, psychological trauma and political violence)
Development and change in social identities across the life-span;

Health, social relationships and stigma.

Recently Completed Projects

Sharing Hope: Destigmatising suicide and promoting mental health help-seeking
Funded by both the Irish Research Council (IRC)and Pieta House, we have been examining the value of local mental health support services in destigmatizing help seeking as well as suicide itself. Together with Dr. Michelle Kearns, an IRC funded post graduate scholar we have published a series of papers demonstrating the value of shared community and solidarity to those bereaved by suicide (Kearns et al., 2017).. We have also demonstrated that increasing the visibility of support services can assist in the reduction of stigma associated with suicide (Kearns et al., 2018a, 2018b). We have also highlighted contexts where people may not feel able to access the help they need (Kearns et al., 2015) With Dr. Jennifer McMahon and Laura Neenan in Education and Professional Studies we are now running an RCT to evaluate an intervention to support student teachers who may be tasked with supporting youth mental health in the future. Some of this work is available as a videocast here

Social Identity Change and Acquired Brain Injury

Funded by both the Irish Research Council (IRC) and Acquired Brain Injury Ireland, we have over the last decade examined how valued social identities can be harnessed in support of recovery and rehabilitation for those negotiating acquired brain injury. Acquired brain injury can be a life altering condition, and those affected as well as their families can have difficulties readjusting to their former lives. Our work shows how membership and identification with old and new valued groups can be pivotal to both quality of life, mental health and positive social relationships for this very vulnerable groups. You can read about some of the work that has been presented to government and can be accessed here

Social identity, Psychology Trauma & PTSD

I have a long standing interest in the impact of psychological trauma on mental health on the one hand and social attitudes on the other (Schmid & Downes, 2009; Schmid & Muldoon, 2015). A core argument here is that the personal and social psychological effects of traumatic experience can be divergent (Muldoon & Lowe, 2012; Muldoon, 2013). By this we mean that changes as a result of trauma may protect mental health at the same time as negatively affect social attitudes. This may be particularly likely where the trauma arises as a consequence of negative intergroup dynamics (Muldoon et al., 2007; 2008) and can be seen to be linked to the relationship between trauma and identities (Schmid & Muldoon, 2015). More recently we have been exploring how trauma impacts intragroup dynamics (Muldoon et al., 2017; Naughton et al., 2015; in press) and considering potentially positive consequences of trauma at a sociopolitical level.

Social deprivation and stigma in Limerick
With colleagues here in UL and in Notttingham Trent University, we have been involved in research that has experiences of residents socioeconomically disadvantaged areas of Limerick (Gallagher, 2016; McNamara et al., 2011, 2013; Stevenson, et al., 2014). We continue to research in this area and are actively interested in the identifying a role for disadvantage and group status as a driver of stress reactivity. Other current projects include young people’s experience of disadvantage (Bradshaw et al, 2016) as well as young people in comparatively affluent and deprived areas experience the school system (Jay & Muldoon in press).

Muldoon, O. T., O'Donnell, A. T., & Minescu, A. (2017). Parents' and children's understanding of their own and others' national identity: The importance of including the family in the national group. Journal of Community & Applied Social Psychology. (pdf)

O’Byrne, C., & Muldoon, O. (2017). Stigma, self-perception and social comparisons in young people with an intellectual disability. Irish Educational Studies, 1-16.

Joyce, C., Stevenson, C. & Muldoon, O. (2013), Claiming and displaying national identity: Irish traveller's and students strategic use of 'banal' and 'hot' national identity in talk. British Journal of Social Psychology,52, 3, 450-468. DOI: 10.1111/j.2044-8309.2012.02097 (pdf)

Gallagher, S., O'Donnell, A. T., Minescu, A., & Muldoon, O. T. (2013). A commentary on 'The effects of identication with a support group on the mental health of people with multiple sclerosis'. Journal of Psychosomatic Research. 75, 94-95